


Grade 13 (Jiara)

by DevelopingFlower



Category: Outer Banks (TV)
Genre: F/M, Jiara - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 05:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29879451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DevelopingFlower/pseuds/DevelopingFlower
Summary: When Kiara is hired as a lackey at the hotel JJ's family owns, she finds out there is more to him than meets the eye.Or–what if Kiara was a born a Pogue and JJ a Kook?
Relationships: JJ & Kiara & Pope & John B. Routledge, JJ & Kiara (Outer Banks), JJ & Pope (Outer Banks), JJ & Topper (Outer Banks), JJ/John B. Routledge, JJ/Kiara (Outer Banks), JJ/Pope (Outer Banks), JJ/Topper (Outer Banks), Kiara & John B. Routledge, Kiara & Pope (Outer Banks), Kiara/John B. Routledge, Kiara/Pope (Outer Banks), Pope & John B. Routledge, Pope/John B. Routledge, Rafe Cameron/JJ, Sarah Cameron & JJ, Sarah Cameron & John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron & Kiara, Sarah Cameron/JJ, Sarah Cameron/JJ/Kiara/Pope/John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron/John B. Routledge, Sarah Cameron/Kiara
Kudos: 4





	Grade 13 (Jiara)

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you like it!

Kiara's POV

"What are we still doing here?" I wondered aloud.

The Fourth's high school cafeteria was swarmed with happy people. Relieved students having drinks with proud teachers; parents laughing at stories about their kids' high school adventures told by staff; and little brothers and sisters kicking around balloons and freely indulging in cake.

"You're here for us," Mahir corrected, waving around his straight-A report card. "When did you become so self-centred?" He looked at the others, making a gesture that implied something along the lines of "can you believe this girl?"

"I learned from the best," I retorted. In reality, Mahir was the furthest thing from selfish, but so was I.

He admitted defeat. "Touché."

I turned to Chow, whom I considered to be my best friend. With an emphasis on "my"–Chow wasn't so much of a one best friend kind of girl. She had many friends and acquaintances, everywhere. At her music lessons; at her three jobs; at all of the school clubs that she was a part of. She was notorious for even befriending teachers, something I often teased her about.

"Seriously, Chow–I need to get out of here," I insisted, swinging my legs back and forth, unable to sit still. "I am really proud of you guys," I then addressed the others. "It was by no means easier this time, but I just knew you would graduate,"

Before Mahir could make a big deal out of thanking me, I added. "Not you, Mahir. I was talking to "grade 13"? You know, those of us that didn't graduate last year and became the black sheep of this school? You succeeded at your first attempt to graduate, so you don't count."

Mahir's mouth fell open. "I am still a part of grade 13," He protested. "I've hung out with you guys all year; I don't even remember some of the names of the kids in my own grade."

I rolled my eyes but couldn't undermine a smirk. Mahir was probably the funniest person I knew. He often made me laugh without even trying to. "Anyway... The point I was trying to make was: you guys did it. You proved everyone wrong," I willed myself not to become emotional over nothing. "But Chow and I haven't yet, so, if you'll excuse us, we'll see you guys again once we have." I stood up abruptly and tugged at Chow's arm.

"What if we won't get to graduate again, though?" Chow asked no one in particular, a horrified expression on her face. "I've never even looked into adult education." I sure had.

I managed to pull her to a standing position. "We'll start a farm together," I proposed faux-unironically. "We'll become the most successful farmers in the world. We'll even win the Nobel Prize for it, and no one will ever question our intelligence again."

They all stared at me as if I had lost it.

Theodore's girlfriend Lily chuckled. "My parents are farmers," She commented. "I think you'll prefer college."

"If only it were that easy," I sing-songed, pulling Chow behind me. She complained that she was coming already.

I waved them goodbye and they shouted that it would all be fine, that they believed in me, not that it really registered with me by this point.

...

"You know what gets on my nerves the most?" I told Chow as we were descending the stairs to the school's front doors. "When teachers are like "you didn't graduate again?" when they know I've been failing all my classes since the ninth grade."

Chow managed a small chuckle. "I get what you mean." She didn't elaborate. Then again, what was there to say? Our futures were bleak at best. This was not how we imagined ourselves when we first got into this school for smart people–with difficulty might I add. We should have known back then that we didn't have the chops. It would have saved us so much pain.

"Girls," Someone called us back. It was my math teacher, who knew all about me being a lost cause. I was sure she heard what I said; that was just my luck. "Are you going home?"

Chow looked at me. "I'm not, but she probably is."

Chow always stayed late at school to discuss stuff with teachers. I was sure she wanted to catch up with the school's counselor ms. Letta today and complain about the final exams. You see, Ms. Letta was a young woman (in her late twenties, I thought) and Chow and she had grown so close to the point that they exchanged gifts sometimes. Chow would go with me to places, but always come back to the school and stay until it closed for the day.

I smiled tightly. "We were just getting some fresh air."

Upon hearing that, the math teacher approached us. "Would you girls do me a favor? Elizabeth needs more people to critique John Joseph's make-up presentation, the one she e-mailed everyone about? It won't take more than fifteen minutes."

Ah, that was right. I had read the e-mail; realized that JJ Maybank was the only student to be allowed to give a presentation after we received our report cards, which meant the teacher filled in an A before she had anything to grade because everything he does is brilliant; and then deleted the mail.

I bit my lip and looked down at my feet, hoping Chow would make the decision for us. She didn't say anything; kept trying to make eye-contact with me to see how I felt about it. She was so considerate.

"He usually gives great presentations; might be interesting," The math teacher said to try to convince us to come. Little did she know that that only made me want to do the opposite. "And this could very well be your last time in a classroom," She added. I held back from snorting.

How could we say no to this teacher, though? All of the teachers were great. They had been incredibly patient with and sympathetic to me. If they were upset that I had failed to graduate the second time, it was because they wanted me to; wanted it for me.

Chow and I exchanged glances. "I mean, sure–" "Why not?" We replied at the same time.

...

JJ was wearing a dark blue suit that matched the color of his eyes. I hated it. I mean, yeah, it was a nice suit and he looked good in it. But he stood out like a sore thumb among the rest of us. This was not graduation; we were just here to get our report cards. Besides, he could fool himself as much as he wanted, but the truth was, he was also a part of grade 13. Sort of, like Mahir. Unlike Mahir, he used to be in my grade; he was nineteen now.

But when he was eighteen last school year, for some mysterious reason, he never showed up for his final exams. Ergo, he had to repeat senior year. Suddenly, the king of the school was in the same boat as a handful of the commoners he used to look down on. Suddenly, he was the pariah. And we did not help exactly; we had some fun times messing with him.

I only wished it had made the girls in grade 12 think twice before falling for him. Aside from Chow and me, it was just a few of those girls that fell particularly hard in the classroom. They were sitting in the front; we in the back. The middle of the classroom was a gaping space. This didn't seem to matter to JJ. He was giving his presentation as if he were in an Ivy League admissions interview. When I was listening, that was; when I wasn't, I was trying to get Chow to lose her fake Flappy Bird game.

"Thank you, thank you," Chow and I heard him say before looking up from her phone in alarm and quickly joining the girls' loud applause. "If anyone's interested, come visit me at the Victoria Hotel by the Dam. I'm staying there 'cause my family owns it," A self-satisfied smile spread across his handsome face and I wanted to slap it off him.

We did the critiquing part and just when I wanted to leave, the other girls pulled us into a conversation. They wanted to know where we were going to go for the summer. This was going to be the best summer of their lives, after all. For the first time since I found out I ruined my second time doing final exams, I seriously thought about it. If I didn't graduate, I would be spending the summer catching up on six years of biology, physics and chemistry. If I did well enough on the resit to get to graduate anyway, I would be doing the same thing to prepare for college but maybe be allowed to have a little fun too.

I sighed. "I wish I could just leave everything and everyone behind and take off; go wherever my instincts lead me," I voiced my deepest desire. "Or do something really fun, you know, something I'm good at, so I can forget this horrible, humiliating year."

Apparently, I scared the other girls off with my honesty because they went back to talking amongst themselves.

"But your father won't let you do any of that," Chow remarked sympathetically.

"Nope," I replied. "I wouldn't want to leave him either," I admitted. "He's almost seventy."

Chow played with the little monkey toy attached to the zipper of her backpack. "Maybe you can do something without having to leave home," She suggested.

"Yeah, maybe."

...

"What are you still doing here?" Mahir inquired with a mouth full of cake after he spotted us coming out of the classroom from the cafeteria.

I ignored him. I had a goal, a brand-new goal. Chow only realized my intentions when I began speed-walking, trying to catch up with JJ who had almost reached the stairs. "Uh, Kiara," Her voice became gradually more high-pitched as she followed my example to prevent me from doing something stupid. "What are you doing?"

I stopped JJ. Chow came to a halt and exchanged glances with grade 13. I could imagine why they were confused.

"JJ, would you be willing to do me a favour?" I asked him, no shame.

His brows shot up. "Why would I do that?"

I faked a laugh. "Oh, you're so funny." I waved dismissively as if to say "you silly goose." "You'd be helping me out so much, that's why." Somehow, I knew grade 13 were shaking their heads at me.

"With what?" Asked JJ, growing impatient.

"I need a job at the Victoria Hotel and I'm not sure they'll hire me unless you put in a word for me. You know, since your family owns it."

He readjusted his brown leather satchel over his shoulder and looked me up and down. "It's a fancy place," He countered.

"But, in theory, you could get me in?" I urged.

"Of course."

"So then be a nice guy for once in your life and do this thing for me. It doesn't matter which job; I just want something to do this summer. And you know I take stuff seriously."

"You weren't taking my presentation seriously just now."

Shoot.

For a moment, I didn't know where to look; what to say. And JJ was enjoying it thoroughly. He used to be half-turned around, ready to go down the stairs whenever he decided that he didn't want to talk to me anymore, but now he turned back fully to face me. "What's in it for me?" He spoke again, nodding at me.

"Uh," I stuttered. I never used to be one for impulsive decisions, but I had changed, so it was only appropriate that I try new things too. So far, I was not a fan. What could I possibly offer him? "I'll... owe you one?"

Something behind me caught JJ's attention; probably grade 13 dramatically expressing their secondhand embarrassment. Then his apathetic gaze dropped back down to meet mine.

"That works," He said simply.

"Really?"

"As long as you'll do whatever I tell you."

I blinked at him. "Wait a minute, no. I'm not doing anything illegal or immoral or..." I struggled to find the right word. "Inappropriate!"

"Fine." He placed his hand over his heart. "You have my word that I won't make you."

"That was easy," I expressed honestly. "You just assume I'll hold up my end of the deal?"

"Well, you said you take things seriously," He dead-panned, using air quotes for the last part. My cheeks burned. I glanced over my shoulder to find grade 13 watching us intently.

Suddenly, I remembered JJ was staying at the hotel. "Or you're just gonna make my job impossible until I do, won't you?"

He had to undermine a grin. "The thought may have crossed my mind."

The thing was, though, I was far too happy to have found an escape for the summer to care. "Whatever," I told him. "It's a deal."

He didn't try to shake my hand and I appreciated that. The conversation had been awkward enough. But he did need my phone number so we could arrange the interview and, somehow, that was even worse. Afterwards, I watched his mop of blond hair leave the school and tightly hugged my phone to my body in excitement. Grade 13 gradually surrounded me.

"What did you do?!" Mahir reprimanded me.

I narrowed my eyes at them. "You heard everything, didn't you?"

"Pretty much," Sean confessed.

"That's why I'm asking you: do you even know what you did?" Mahir cut him off loudly.

I crossed my arms over my chest. "No, what did I do? I scored myself a job! I should just walk up to people more often; I've been missing out on so many opportunities probably–"

I thought I heard Theodore mutter "idiot" under his breath, but I wasn't sure.

"Kiara," Chow interrupted me. "Listen to them for a second."

Mahir moved closer to stand in front of me. "You don't know JJ like we do. He is known for his "bets" and "bargains." He doesn't dare try to make 'em with people at school anymore because he knows we're this close to ambushing him and beating him up for the shit he put us through before. But you just went up to him and offered him one. He's a troublemaker, and he owns you now."

"That's ridiculous," I scoffed. "You've been watching too many Mafia movies."

No one seemed to find that amusing. It worried me just a little bit. 

Mahir shrugged. "I hope I'm wrong."


End file.
